The Life of Brian

Anonymous August 27th, 2006 at 9:26 am

Brian – first let me say you are definitely underinformed – however when you do the same search on other search engines – it does not return the same results – so using your reasoning – obviously it is not true!

Brian August 27th, 2006 at 9:57 am

Why thank you, “anonymous,” for your intelligent and thoughtful feedback. I do appreciate catching the typo, and have to tell you that I am greatly amused that you think you can draw conclusions like that by a typo! Kudos to you on your high horse!

As for being under informed – hardly! I respect your opinion, of course, but have to tell you that I believe YOU are the one that is wrong! :) That is the very nature of an opinion–”a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.” I have mine, and you have yours – c’est la vie.

Brian August 27th, 2006 at 11:04 am

Thanks Lainey!

BTW, some ignoramus posted this earlier and I deleted it, but thought I should share some of the ignorant response I am receiving.

Here is the original unedited comment posted by another (maybe the same?) “anonymous” at 11:28am CST:

asshole….you are an assholio…to the highest power imagineable……doodie on you and doodie on your family. poopenhower…thats what i say, or fukstik, yup your not good for anything more than a fukstik.

Whatever! August 27th, 2006 at 2:39 pm

Does anyone else find ironic humor in someone who’s griping about spelling errors (and making assumptions about another person on that basis), but doesn’t seem to have a problem with using only dashes for internal punctuation, and furthermore, scattering those dashes randomly between phrases of his/her comment? Apparently, periods, commas, semicolons, and other punctuation marks are tools of the communist left and will allow the terrorists to win.

Anonymous August 27th, 2006 at 6:25 pm

dont say that opinions are never wrong, just one side of the story. in your case your opinion is wrong because you state that it is a fact. our current president is no more of a failure than any other president in history. abraham lincoln was responsible for a war that killed more americans than any other war, was he a success or a failure? think about it.

Anonymous August 27th, 2006 at 10:20 pm

OH Snap! OWNED! anonymous 7:25′s ass

bigbilly goat gruff August 28th, 2006 at 12:30 am

note to anonymous re your reference to whining liberals,perhaps you are familiar with the story of the turtle and the scorpion,perhaps not. Caught on an island being consumed by flames a scorpion begs a turtle for a ride off the island to the main land. ” Please take me of this island Mr. Turtle. Please ferry me on your back to the main land or I will surely perish!”"If I allow you on my back you will sting me and I will die.” No,no I promise I will not. Why would I do that if you were good enough to save me? Besides if I did that you would die in the water and then I would surely drown.This is what we can do. I will leap on your back when you are 3 feet from the island and when you take me to the main land I will jump off your back when we are 3 feet from shore. So you see I can never sting you. And I will be forever in your debt.” And so the turtle relented. “Very well then jump out to my back.” said the turtle,which the scorpion quickly did. As the turtle turned and headed toward the far shore the scorpion raise his tail and….. ” Why did you do that?” cried the turtle. “Now I will die and you will drown.”"It’s my nature.” the scorpion replied sadly.

Gretchen August 28th, 2006 at 12:19 pm

For a truly great opinion (in my opinion), check out “The Worst President in History?” by Sean Wilentz, an historian from Princeton, the Rolling Stone, posted April 21. Not that I wasn’t already convinced! Great to get facts.

BobGriffin August 28th, 2006 at 2:23 pm

Ali,
A president who could take world-wide popularity and within three to four months turn it into growing world-wide disdain could easily be seen as a failure, at least by my understanding of ‘failure’. The radically increased danger to the Iraqi moderates, Mandeans, Armenians, Syriacs, Assyrians & Chaldeans, and Yezidis during the current American involvement in Iraq signifies failure of a process of democratization, if we can assume that Bush was telling the truth when he said (paraphrasing) that the goal of our activity in Iraq was an Iraqi democracy (as opposed to Iraqi mob rule). The growing dis-affection with the administration and the Republicans in Congress by 2-time Bush voting Republicans certainly looks like failure to me.
Your attack on Brian reads very much like a scripted fill-in-the-blank response to a critic of the current administration. I’m sure you can do better.
Ma’a salama,
Bob Griffin

Anonymous August 28th, 2006 at 3:19 pm

Why do most of the criticisms and insults come from the liberals, especially during the campaign season? Seems the only thing they know how to do is complain and point fingers. It would be nice to see a more mature approach rather than the childish name-calling tactics that seem well-associated with them.

Anonymous August 28th, 2006 at 3:39 pm

And finger pointing about finger pointing.

Anonymous August 28th, 2006 at 4:49 pm

I’m just saying…

Anonymous August 28th, 2006 at 5:19 pm

yes we should have a discussion about past presidents to really discover if our current president is any more of a failure than any other. also, republicans of the past are not the same as republicans of today, and democrats of today are the socialists of the past. but anyway, at least half of the population thought lincoln was a failure and the other half didnt. who was right knowing what you know now? who was right at the time it was happening? as far as the world’s opinion of us, right now it is safer in the us than almost any other country in the world. the reason they express a poor opinion of us is because they are afraid of retaliation if they support us totally.

Maurice August 29th, 2006 at 12:07 pm

Hi: Unfortunately, from what I’ve been able to gather is the real agenda of this administration, George W is, in fact, a huge success. I am not here addressing the almost syncophantic tone of the supposedly objective White House biography (compare to Clinton’s to see how Bush’s agenda is promoted and praised in this “BIO” as opposed to evaluated objectively in Clinton’s). Rather, I’m thinking of the no-longer-so-hidden agenda, ie. mess up big government agencies by hiring incompetents and short-shrifting their funding (ie FEMA and Katrina). This, in turn, destroys public faith in government and keeps the public out of politics and alienated from participation in elections. Promote useless programs like No Child Left Behind that proport to help the disadvantaged but in fact are geared to “help” them become, as a teacher friend of mine put it, “little test-taking machines.” This also allows the disenfranchised to maintain the appearance of getting an education–but not too much– so they can become “useful members of society”–minimum wage workers, dead-end job holders, cannon fodder. Next on the agenda, get every interest group that has proved it has some clout in the past and set it against another group. Set all the interest groups at each other’s throats (i.e. the Democarats, religious types against gays, racial and ethnic groups against each other) as much as possible. Next, promote a brace of bs “legislation” that has no effect except to demonstrate the ostensible religiosity and patriotism of the legislators (flag burning, anti stem-cell research). Third, gut the national economy and spread the military as thin as possible. We’re in Afganistan and Iraq and, if were honest, Lebanon at present. And the current administration (cf George Packer’s and Seymour Hersh’s NYer articles)is “hoping” to go to Iran. Finally and, for me, most important, continue to deny any damage to the world’s ecosystem because of uncontrolled pollution and related corporate activities, so that short-term profits and the loss of natual environmental buffers (habits) will benefit the powerful and devastate the lives of the helpless. I’m sure this all sounds like “liberal” cant, but look at the damage to what’s left of the glaciers; look at increasingly hot world temperatures, and so on. I’m not suggesting that Bush and his pals are responsible (directly) for an insanely increasing world population, which is the major contributing factor to all these problems. But it certainly helps when you’ve got lots of people pitted against each other for basic survival work (if that). Also means there are plenty of people available to clean up your trophy house, eh?
Maurice

Anonymous August 29th, 2006 at 8:21 pm

“W” is a HUGE success- the very definition_ he’s accomplshed everything he set out 8 years ago to achieve.

Mind Controller August 31st, 2006 at 12:41 am

And what did Bush promise to do five years ago?
In his first inaugural speech he made the following comments…

“I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.” (Except for civil rights and job opportunities. He claimed that outsourcing jobs overseas was actually good for the economy. Then, by 2004, he cut $600 million from job training after he said the government would pay for job training. He also pushed to cut college Pell Grants, after he said he wanted to expand them.)

“We will reclaim America’s schools, before ignorance and apathy claim more young lives.” (No Child Left Behind has been a miserable flop. Did I mention he cut federal funding for student loans and grants?)

“We will reform Social Security and Medicare, sparing our children from struggles we have the power to prevent. And we will reduce taxes, to recover the momentum of our economy and reward the effort and enterprise of working Americans.

(Social Security & Medicare reform? Sure enough. Again in 2004, Bush announced a 17 percent increase in Medicare premiums for seniors.)

When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.

(Except for the poor who are trying to get a college education or receive Medicare).

I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions with civility, to pursue the public interest with courage, to speak for greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility and try to live it as well.

(Especially if you’re rich. In that case, I will promise $148 billion in immediate tax cuts to the richest 10 percent – with more to come in the following years – then claim that it will benefit the poor and middle-income)!